


Not Quite Even

by just_another_outcast



Series: the scenes we deserve (episode tags) [15]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: A little bit of fluff, AU Episode Tag, Apologies, Episode: s01e15 Death's Door, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Malcolm Bright Whump, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Tag to 1x15, Team as Family, coda to 1x15, like barely worth a tag, pre-Brightwell, the whump is super mild though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24889900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_another_outcast/pseuds/just_another_outcast
Summary: When Edrisa takes down the killer, the gun goes off.  But despite the agony in his shoulder, Malcolm is determined to make a few apologies.(AU tag to 1x15, Death's Door)
Relationships: Malcolm Bright & Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright & Edrisa Tanaka
Series: the scenes we deserve (episode tags) [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782832
Comments: 1
Kudos: 55





	Not Quite Even

**Author's Note:**

> This is really my first time writing Edrisa, and I don't think I did that great of a job at it lol. But I guess that's what practice is for. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review :)

Everything was going perfectly fine. Malcolm was between the killer and the body, he was successfully talking the killer down, and Edrisa seemed to be out of harm's way. Yeah, everything was going swimmingly. Until it wasn't.

Edrisa grabbed the surgical tray and swung, hard, hitting the killer across the temple and sending her to the floor, but not before the shock of getting hit caused the woman to pull the trigger, which was still pointed at Malcolm.

The gunshot was louder than a clap of thunder in that small room, the ringing it left in Malcolm's ears drowning out the sound of his own cry of pain. He felt himself hit the freezers behind him, and reached out with his left hand to steady himself before he fell to the ground. If he had to guess, Malcolm would say that the bullet was lodged in his clavicle.

"Bright!" Edrisa called out, her eyes wide and feet frozen. She was still holding onto the tray she'd used to strike the killer. Blood was dripping off the corner. A glance down proved that the woman was unconscious. There was blood pouring from a gash at her temple where the edge of the tray had struck her. "I- I-," she stuttered, still stuck where she was.

"It's okay," Malcolm replied through clenched teeth. He was going to be fine. "You did good," he said. Mentioning that he had been talking the killer down successfully wasn't going to help the situation. "Dani and JT are on their way, but you should make sure that she's okay." He motioned down to the killer.

"No," Edrisa immediately replied. She shook her head adamantly, her bottom lip wobbling. "No, you're more important." She finally moved, grabbing the towel that had been laying next to the surgical tray and stepping over to Malcolm, who was slowly letting himself slide down the freezers to the floor. She shoved the towel against Malcolm's wound. Malcolm wasn't sure which one them flinched more when he let out another cry of pain. "This is all my fault," she muttered. "I'm so sorry, I should've been more careful, I-"

"No, it's okay," Malcolm insisted, even though he was squeezing his eyes shut against the pain. "You took down a killer, and that's what matters." He put his hand over hers on the gunshot, both to help her keep pressure on it and to provide her a little bit of comfort. But she was still breathing much too quickly, almost hyperventilating. "Edrisa, Edrisa, look at me." After a moment, she made eye contact. There were tears in her eyes. "I'm going to be fine, I promise. It's okay."

Finally, Dani and JT burst through the door, guns drawn. They were just a little too late for that to be useful.

"Damn," JT muttered. "What happened here?"

"Edrisa saved the day," Malcolm replied before the medical examiner could say anything. "The killer here shot me, and Edrisa hit her with that tray, and saved the day." Technically, everything he was saying was the truth.

"I'll call a bus," Dani said, her worried gaze focused more on Malcolm than anyone else. He needed to talk with her. Malcolm had messed up a lot with his team that day, and while he and Edrisa were probably even, he still needed to apologize to Dani. She had only been trying to be there for him and he had shut her down at every turn. Really, he needed to apologize to Edrisa too. He'd tried to earlier, but having a killer there kind of took away it's effect.

JT moved towards the downed killer and checked her pulse. "You got her good," he said, sounding rather impressed. "I see you." He smirked at Edrisa, but she was too busy staring at Malcolm's GSW to notice, and JT seemed to notice that. "He's gonna be fine, right Bright?" If Malcolm wasn't mistaken, he did see just a little bit of concern in JT's eyes as well.

"Oh yeah," he said, waving his left hand in dismissal. Just that simple move took every bit of his energy. Pain was exhausting. "I think I need to get to that bus," he admitted. Malcolm got his feet under him and tried to stand, but stumbled with another cry of pain. Moving his shoulder at all, even just to stand, was agony. He could feel the bullet grinding against the bone and fought with each breath to not scream.

"Bright," Edrisa called out, doing her best to help keep him upright, but it didn't do much. She was the only one who was truly shorter than him, and by a considerable amount. Dani was shorter than him too, but her heeled boots always hid that.

"Woah," JT muttered, swooping in to help keep Malcolm upright and standing. "You okay, bro?"

Malcolm nodded. "Yeah," he grunted. "Yeah, I'm good now." And he was telling the truth. Now that he was upright and standing, all he had to do was walk out to the bus, and he was pretty sure he could manage that on his own just fine.

"I gotta stay with the perp," JT said with a frown. "Edrisa, can you make sure he gets to the bus okay?"

"Yes! Yes," Edrisa immediately responded. "Anything for Bright."

"You did good, girl," JT said with a respectful nod, to which Edrisa smiled for the first time since they had arrived at the convention that morning.

Malcolm began to move slowly towards the door, keeping his shoulder as stiff as possible. He continued to keep pressure on it, and tried not to focus on how much it hurt. A bullet in the bone would mean it was going to hurt for a while, so there was plenty of time to focus on the pain later.

"He's right," Malcolm said the moment Edrisa appeared next to him. The smile was gone from her face, once again replaced by fear. "You did good," he said, echoing JT's words.

"I could've gotten you killed," Edrisa replied. Her voice wobbled slightly, betraying just how hard she was trying to keep herself together.

"But you didn't. You stopped the killer, and you saved the day, and that's all that matters."

"But you-"

"-will be just fine," he interrupted. "If I was going to get shot, small caliber in the shoulder isn't too bad of a way to do it," he said with a forced grin. The pain was growing every single second, but he didn't need to let Edrisa know that. The woman already felt bad enough about it as it was. "And I'm the one who should be apologizing. I've been very..." he trailed off, searching for the right word. "Insensitive, today, towards you and towards so much more, and I truly am sorry." And he truly was. He had never once wanted for Edrisa to feel like she didn't help people. If it weren't for her and other medical examiners, people like him and other law enforcement would never be able to solve crimes and catch criminals. Edrisa was essential.

"I got you shot, so I don't think you need to be apologizing," Edrisa muttered, looking away.

"Well I'm not gonna stop apologizing until you accept my apology. You don't have to forgive me, just accept the fact that I am apologizing," he said, trying to sound as normal as possible. That was hard to do when over half of his attention was focused purely on breathing through the pain. They were almost out the doors and into the parking lot, where the ambulance would arrive and Dani was waiting.

"I mean of course I forgive you, Bright, I-," she broke off for a moment, and took a deep breath. "I know you didn't mean anything by it, and I know how much respect you have for what we do. It's okay." At least she seemed to genuinely care that he was sorry, which did mean a lot to him.

"Then how about we just say that this," he motioned down with his eyes towards the GSW, "makes us even." He grimaced, but masked it as a smile.

"Oh, this is much more than even," Edrisa said. She wasn't smiling, but she was sounding a little bit more like her normal self. Edrisa rushed forward and pushed the door open for him, holding it open as he walked out into the cooler air. "I'll be owing you for like a year."

"I'd hate to be in Bright's debt," Dani said with a smile. Edrisa flipped around, clearly noticing her for the first time.

"Detective Powell," Edrisa greeted. She finally smiled. "I was just, uh, nevermind."

Dani nodded like she always did when she had no idea what Edrisa was talking about, and turned to Malcolm, a frown once again appearing on her face.

"Bus should be here within the minute," she said, looking curiously at Malcolm. He just forced a smile and nodded. It was getting harder to focus on anything other than the burning pain in his shoulder.

Just as he was considering finding somewhere to sit down - because it was becoming difficult to even stand when his shoulder was in such agony - the sirens rounded the corner and pulled in front of them.

"Edrisa, can you take them back to the perp?" Dani asked. "I need to talk with Bright."

"Sure thing," Edrisa replied, but looked back at Malcolm.

"Thank you," he breathed out. He meant a few different things, but Edrisa gave him a small smile, and that was good enough for him. Once she was walking back inside with two EMTs hot on her trail, Malcolm turned back to Dani. "I'm fine," he said. That definitely wasn't true. He could still feel the pain growing, and it was taking everything he had to keep the tears at bay. Malcolm walked towards the ambulance that still had EMTs with it, Dani right next to him.

"That's not true, but I don't think that's what we should be debating right now," she said.

"Sir, we need to take you to the hospital," one of the EMTs said. "We can't treat a GSW right here."

"Okay, just give me a minute," he insisted. He needed to talk to Dani first, and he wasn't in bad enough condition for her to go with him to the hospital. Besides, it was amazing enough that he was even allowing himself to be brought to the hospital. But he needed to talk with her, no matter how hard it was to ignore the pain. This conversation needed to happen.

"Okay, you can have a minute, but then we have to go," the EMT replied. Malcolm nodded in thanks.

"Dani, I'm sorry. You've been trying to talk to me all day, and turns out, I was listening. The killer brought it all out of me."

Dani scoffed lightly, but smiled. "Only you would find it therapeutic talking to a killer."

"You're the one I like talking to," he immediately responded. "And I should do it more. You've just been trying to be there for me, and I haven't been letting you, and I'm sorry." It really was just a day for him to be a crappy friend.

"Bright, I care about you," Dani said with a shrug. "I know you're used to being alone, to not having people there for you, but that's not how it is anymore. You have a team, and we take care of each other."

"I know, and I promise I'm gonna try to remember that," Malcolm replied.

"Time to go, kid," the frustrated EMT replied. Malcolm didn't blame him. He was itching for some pain meds too.

"Keep me updated," Dani said as the EMTs got Malcolm onto the ambulance. She motioned to her own shoulder. "I'll come bail you out." She gave him that smile that made his stomach flip.

It was that smile that Malcolm thought of as the ambulance doors closed and he didn't have anything but the pain to focus on. It was that smile that he kept in his mind as more pressure was put on the GSW and he screamed. It was that smile that Malcolm thought of as he drifted off into unconsciousness through anesthesia as the bullet was pulled from his shoulder. That smile was the first thing he thought of when he woke back up.

That smile was the first sight his tired eyes saw when he awoke in the hospital bed. That smile was his favorite sight.


End file.
